Blood Ties, Chapter 19: Dinesh

Last time on Blood Ties, the party found Dinesh, but the Conquerors are closing in on them. Will they ever receive the next MacGuffin? Find out after the cut.

Meilin was the first to find her voice. Rollan’s throat was closed tight, not just by the dust Dinesh’s appearance had raised, but by the fear of being crushed under one of those terrible feet. Or skewered on a tusk … or swept in by that mighty trunk and swallowed whole.

Hooray! The party found Dinesh! Let’s see how this meeting goes down:

Meilin: Hey, Dinesh! We’re the Greencloaks, and we need your help.

Rollan: Those Conquerors over there want your Slate Elephant.

Dinesh: Do you want my Slate Elephant?

Party: Yes!

Dinesh: And you need it to fight these Conquerors, right?

Party: Yes!

Dinesh: Wait … if the Conquerors are back, does it mean that Kovo and Gerathon are free?

Tarik: Honestly, we have no idea.

Dinesh: You do realize that a Great Beast’s talisman is their Soul Jar, right? You know, my buddy Suka entombed herself in ice so she could get away from the world, and so that nobody could get her talisman. It’s kinda what I’m doing here, too.

Rollan: Well, the world is catching up with you right now, Dinesh. You’re gonna have to choose if you’re gonna help us or not.

Dinesh: How about this — I’ll help whoever wins this Tower Defense Game! And I’ll let my priests help you in order to even out the playing field.

You heard the giant elephant: it’s time for Tower Defense! I’m going to be a lazy recapper and post the tower defense level from Final Fantasy VII here. Just replace the bad guys with giant Bile-enhanced crocodiles.

While you let that video play, let’s go over all the important stuff that happens to our protagonists:

The party drains the lake by turning a massive wheel. It doesn’t move until Jhi helps out, though.

The Devourer is probably with this group of Conquerors, since the party sees a massive saltwater crocodile leading the Bile-enhanced crocodiles.

Rollan finds the Slate Elephant in the temple! He briefly considers taking it, but decides that it goes against his Thieves Code. Apparently, Rollan chose wisely, because Dinesh tells him that he’s definitely going to help the party. And by “help” I mean “tell Rollan that reinforcements are coming”.

——————–

Stuff I Forgot to Mention Above:
Our protagonists will run into Suka in the next book. Spoilers: She is not pleased when her rest is disturbed.

Suka is not a very nice word in Russian (link is NSFW). Let’s just say that the character acts like her namesake.